The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (April 24, 2023) – This week, how to worry wisely about artificial intelligence, why in Sudan and beyond, the trend towards global peace has been reversed (13:00) and if English nationalism is on the rise, no one has told the English (19:30).
Tag Archives: AI
Review: How AI Is Now Disrupting Societies (DW)
Previews: The Economist Magazine – April 22, 2023
Large, creative AI models will transform lives and labour markets
They bring enormous promise and peril. But how do they work?
Is the worst now over for America’s banks?
In order to assess the damage, we look at three financial institutions
In Sudan and beyond, the trend towards global peace has been reversed
Conflicts are growing longer. Blame complexity, criminality and climate change
Technology Preview: AI Magazine April 2023
Opinion: China-US Danger Zone, Big Tech AI Race, Rice Fuels Diabetes Epidemic
April 3, 2023: A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the China-US contest is entering a new and more dangerous phase, how the tech giants are going all in on artificial intelligence (10:26) and why rice is fuelling climate change and diabetes (25:03).
Why the China-US contest is entering a new and more dangerous phase
Chinese officials rage at what they see as American bullying
Big tech and the pursuit of AI dominance
The tech giants are going all in on artificial intelligence. Each is doing it its own way
The global rice crisis
Rice feeds more than half the world—but also fuels diabetes and climate change
Previews: The Economist Magazine – March 25, 2023
Why the China-US contest is entering a new and more dangerous phase
Chinese officials rage at what they see as American bullying
You may have hoped that when China reopened and face-to-face contact resumed between politicians, diplomats and businesspeople, Sino-American tensions would ease in a flurry of dinners, summits and small talk. But the atmosphere in Beijing just now reveals that the world’s most important relationship has become more embittered and hostile than ever.
How to fix the global rice crisis
The world’s most important crop is fuelling climate change and diabetes
The green revolution was one of the greatest feats of human ingenuity. By promoting higher-yielding varieties of wheat and, especially, rice, plant-breeders in India, Mexico and the Philippines helped China emerge from a famine and India avoid one. From 1965 to 1995 Asia’s rice yields doubled and its poverty almost halved, even as its population soared.
Israel should not squander the opportunity for meaningful constitutional talks
The government’s retreat has pulled Israel back from the brink. But its people remain deeply divided
Israel’s citizens have won a rare victory after marching, week after week, to defend judicial independence and the character of their democracy. On March 27th they forced their prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to suspend his plan to rein in the courts. Yet, although the crisis has abated, it has not passed.
World Economic Forum: Top Stories- March 18, 2023
0:15 Silicon Valley Bank collapse explained – On 10 March, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed after a ‘run’ on the bank from customers wishing to draw cash. The bank didn’t have enough funds to pay them. So federal regulators had to step in and shut it down. Silicon Valley Bank is the biggest US bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis and the second-biggest ever. Just a few days ago, it was a respected player in the tech space, with thousands of venture capital-backed start-ups among its customers. So how did things go wrong so quickly? Watch the video to learn more about the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
2:14 Aviation will be net zero by 2050 – Altogether, aviation is currently responsible for 2.5% of global emissions. Without action to reduce emissions, demand could see this soar 300% by 2050. 65% of the way to net zero will come from switching to sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Its production uses a fraction of the carbon footprint generated by petroleum fuel.
3:49 AI detects lung cancer better than humans – It reads routine chest X-rays to highlight up to 29 abnormalities. Including the patient’s risk of lung cancer so a radiologist can take a look. Usually, human radiologists scour X-rays by eye. But 20% of lung cancer risks go undetected this way, causing a potential delay in diagnosis and poorer outcomes. The new tool was developed by Qure.ai and is being scaled up in partnership with AstraZeneca. The tool was trained using over 4 million X-rays. In trials, it was 17% more sensitive than a human. Early data indicates impressive accuracy for identifying risk of malignancy
5:18 Researchers restore movement for stroke victims – Doctors implant electrodes in the patient’s neck. These stimulate undamaged parts of the spinal cord and bring movement back to paralyzed arms and hands.
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Medicine: AI Verifies ‘Brain Age’ To Detect Alzheimer’s
Researchers at USC have developed a new artificial intelligence model that more accurately captures brain age. This study could result in earlier detection of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive diseases and provide important information about how quickly our brains age.
Art & Technology: Long-Extinct Species ‘Imagined’
‘What is lost is (not) lost forever’ imagines how extraordinary species which have become extinct in the last few centuries would look today, had they survived.
Conilurus albipes: extinct white-footed rabbit rat — a rodent related to rats, mice, and squirrels
Arthropleura: extinct millipede arthropods that lived in North America and Europe around 345 to 290 million years ago
Design: MIT Technology Review – March/April 2023
Why the definition of design might need a change
When we unpack its current meaning, we may find that we want—and need—to retool the word yet again.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.
AI is dreaming up drugs that no one has ever seen. Now we’ve got to see if they work.
AI automation throughout the drug development pipeline is opening up the possibility of faster, cheaper pharmaceuticals.
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